First licensed when a senior in high school in 1966 as WA9RJI. I got my Extra Class ticket in 1969 and the N9NS call about 1977. I became interested in DXing in the early 70's when I joined the local DX/contest club. I got serious about it in 1973 when I bought for $10 an old broken 2-element quad and put it up on a 64 ft. tower. I made top of the Honor Roll in 1988 and sold the quad to K8JP/Joe Palooka for $20!
My current station has a Kenwood TS-870 hooked to a Ten-Tec Titan amp. Outside I now have a home brew 2-element 5 band quad on the 64 foot tower. Nearby is a 72 foot tower with a 2-element 40 and home brew 2-element 30 meter beams, and a 5-element 6 meter beam. Also at my house is the KJ9D Packetcluster (c) node and I have been active in setting up the cluster network around the Midwest.
I enjoy traveling but didn't get into DXpeditions until 1992 when I joined the Clipperton Island FO0CI trip. Since then I have been on:
1993 Kingman Reef/Palmyra Island N9NS/KH5K/N0AFW/KH5 1994 Namibia, CQWW-Phone contest V59T 1996 Grenada, CQWW-Phone contest J37A 1996 Cayman Isl. CQWW-CW ZF2RF 1997 Kure and Midway Atolls K7K & K4M 1998 Grenada, ARRL DX-Phone contest J37G 1998 Bahamas, IOTA contest C6IOTA Other calls held: V5/N9NS, J3/N9NS, ZF2NS, OK8NSA.
I have a BS degree in Electrical Engineering Technology and work as the transmitter engineer at a local TV station, dealing with everything from DC to fiberoptics. Besides Ham Radio I also am very interested in Geology/rock collecting and have BA degree in Geology.